| As a part of the Vision 2020 Plan, the Indian aviation industry should be able to scale up its operations by having a fleet of 1500 aircrafts and around 500 airports.
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| Infrastructure creation for the modernisation of the civil aviation industry is a top priority now, Union minister on civil aviation, Praful Patel said here today on the sidelines of the National Management Convention organised by All India Management Association (AIMA) and Asian Association of Management Organisations (AAMO).
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| Patel rolled out goodies for West Bengal on his visit, saying that though the ministry would have liked the Kolkata Airport to have developed through a Public Private Partnership deal like Mumbai and Delhi, but unfortunately, this could not be done owing to lack of political consensus.
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| With Hyderabad and Bangalore ready to launch greenfield airports by March 2008, Kolkata’s airport was delayed.
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| The government will invest Rs 2000 crore on the first phase of development of Kolkata airport. The minister said the modernisation of Kolkata airport would make it comparable to modernization of Mumbai and Delhi airports. Work would begin by January 2008, and completed by July 2010.
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| Land would have to be acquired for the project, and this was the state government's responsibility, said Patel.
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| He met Budhdhadeb Bhattacharjee, chief minister of West Bengal. Patel placated Bhattacharjee with the promise to build a new airport and a housing and logistics hub at Andal, 200km west of Kolkata on National Highway 2 close to Durgapur Steel Plant. “We are working on the new civil aviation policy with a vision 2020 that would spell out the vision for the industry”, he said.
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| Aviation was now no longer confined to movement of people, but needed for rapid development of the hinterland and therefore the need to scale up operations, he said. The US has around 5,100 airports, India needs to romp up its current figure of 80 airports urgently, he added.
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| The vision 2020 statement will have directives on manpower upgradation and the how the role of the Airport Regulatory Authority could be expanded.
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| An investment of around $150 billion was expected on developing hardware and software components for the industry.
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| Commenting on the merger between Air India and Indian Airlines, he said that Air India was looking at its fleet requirement and was likely to add 200 aircrafts by 2010. Eleven aircrafts had been already bought for $110 million.
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| The merged entity could join hands later with Star Alliance for addressing the issue of seamless flying. The ministry has recently embarked on the plan of developing private airports with corporate support.
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| Tatas had already joined the league. |
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